newer school post

Our most recent post, about school starting, posted as if it was before, Deanie's birthday because we started it, then wrote and posted his, then went back to the school one. So, if you are looking for the most recent update about the school, scroll down past the birthday. Thanks all

Deanie's birthday post

It's hard to read, but Tanner and Melissa, could you tell Deanie that the sign says:
Dean is three, 3, tulo, III--so it says "three" four different ways. And it says Happy Birthday on the side.
Dear Dean,
We had a great time today thinking of you and planning a place to take our birthday picture for you. We chose to do it right next to the ocean where we live. It was really windy today and some boys about Simon's age were flying a kite right near us. It was up so high you could hardly see it!
It is almost always windy here by the ocean--sometimes just a breeze, sometimes really howling winds. You can see the ocean behind us, and behind that is another island, the island of Cebu. We traveled there by boat one time. We just drove our truck up to the boat, then drove on to the boat over a ramp, then the ramp went up and the boat chugged along to Cebu island. Then we drove off, and drove up the rode over there. It's really fun on the boat because it rocks and rolls around in the waves.
Grampy and I are happy that we get to see you on the computer sometimes. You are getting so big, and now that you are three you must be even bigger!
Did it snow there yet? It never, ever, ever snows here and the children don't even know what snow looks like or feels like and they don't know about being cold. They are never freezy cold here, even outside at night.
We love you Dean and wish you a very happy birthday.
Love always,
Grammy and Grampy

School Started!

Daghan Salamat Kaayo. Visayan for, Really big thank you very much!

School started Monday! We wished you could have been here to hear all of the thank you's from children, teachers, parents picking up their children, and anyone else who happened to be there. We felt that you were a little cheated that we heard all the thank you's and expressions of gratitude and you didn't. So we will try to pass it along with pictures. Children, parents, and teachers would shake our hands, give thumbs up, or high 5, knowing that's American style, but others took our right hand and put it to their forehead, Filipino style: A blessing.

Managing funds and accountability are of the highest priority here. Just to make a deposit all of the signers on the account need to be present. So Mary Anne and I went to the bank with the PTA president, the school treasurer and the school principal to make the deposit. We had been to the pawn shop a couple of times ( yes, "pawn shop", see an earlier post for that explanation) and had 88,000 pesos in a money pouch. The PTA president and I were sitting at the bank president's desk in the bank and when I pulled the money out of the pouch and laid it on the desk, he looked at the pile of cash and his eyes and face melted with gratitude. I was a bit surprised at how much he was taken back with the amount of cash that had been raised for his school. I wish I could have taken a picture at that moment so you could see the deep level of gratitude he showed. That was real. This is a big rough man who works as a security guard at night. To see that softness on his face was so different from what is usual. The PTA president is the guy in the middle in the long sleeved gray shirt. The principal is next to Mary Anne and the treasurer next to me.
Note there is a computer monitor in the foreground, but the bank pres. is at a typewriter with a big calculator next to him. Another typewriter, is in the very front of the picture. And Christmas is still everywhere. So fun.

School was back in session. About 60% of the students showed up the first day. Not quite all in uniforms yet either but that will happen soon. Everyone is just happy the school doors are open.









Like in the states, every student has a back pack. Look, their shoes are clean, as is the walkway












This little boy was so proud of his new pencil. He was just walking around carrying it. And he kept lifting it up for me to see.












This classroom was one of the worst hit. I really can't believe it got put back together so that classes could start. These people are such hard workers and so many of them showed up that a lot of work got done that we didn't expect could happen.







The boy in the middle is giving the sign for "quapo". That means handsome. I am not sure whether he was saying he was handsome or he was giving me a compliment. I think the former.











New book and new pencil. This boy was so into writing he wouldn't even look up.













So embarrassed to have their picture taken.














The steps are broken up asphalt. A few days earlier the asphalt was part of the national highway that is under construction about 1 mile from the school. On the work day, men hauled it off the roadside where it had been dug up, and missionaries and others helped place it here to make this path passable.








This is the classroom of the teacher we made original contact with when considering the cleanup and help. She teaches 2nd grade. My camera was a bit of a distraction in her class. I am happy I didn't get a ruler over my knuckles










A clean walkway.









School is out and off some of the students go home.....through the lapok (mud) outside the school grounds.















The schools are so underfunded that when there is a disaster like this the teachers are required to replace all of the tools like maps, globes, chalkboards, etc. out of their own funds. They can get a loan from the district emergency fund but then have to repay it. so, some of your donations went directly to teachers. These teachers are tearfully happy about the 2000 pesos ($38) that they received to replace their "devices" with no pay back. Money is so tight here. An average teacher salary is 20,000 pesos per month. That is about $350/month. The good news is that the $38.00 will go a long way in replacing what they lost.
They kept saying thank you and in this picture, a few of them said it to you, together. "Please tell the people from our hearts how much thank you we feel to them."

In addition to the funds already spent, and that given to teachers, there is a chunk still in the PTA account. It will be used for carpenters, plumbers and materials to repair toilets and wood framing and to build shelves up high out of flood range. There is still more we have not distributed, and lots and lots more work that needs doing. They need an engineer to design and build a wall to divert the river in the next flood. They have one started, but it's not complete. They need a new sound system so they can sing and pray together in the mornings. There is a second school in the district, not as badly damaged, but still with lots of loss, that we will visit and see if we can divert some funds to them too. So, all will be well and directly used.
We can not thank you enough. Your generosity and love for God's children whom you have never seen is humbling
Many have said how wonderful we are to be organizing this and doing some of the dirty work, but honestly we feel almost inanimate in the whole process, like we are just being used as tools to connect people who care with people who need, and to allow people who could feel forgotten to feel that there really is a God and he has not forgotten them. It is a very gratifying work, and the thanks and praise feel really great, but they also feel ill-aimed. At the risk of sounding biblical, Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Our thanks go out, with those of every member of the Bio-os community, to you and to God.

They Came

Lapok, is “mud” in the Vasayan language.

Lapok has become a very familiar word to Mary Anne and me as of late. Lapok is not conducive to education especially in the copious quantities we have here. Educating young people is a priority everywhere in the world including in the Bio-os school district which was a real disaster. All the parents and children had seen all the Lapok in and around the school and knew that there needed to be some serious cleanup before the educating of their children would begin again but there was no relief in sight. They were very discouraged and there was no clear signal from the administration on how or when school would start. Mary Anne and I met with the teachers and the principal the previous week and we proposed that Saturday the 7^th would be the date for cleanup, but that day would need to be confirmed in the PTA meeting that was scheduled for Thursday 5^th at 2pm. The principal was less than enthusiastic about participation from the community. We taught him our concept of welfare, the way the church does it, all about self reliance, then looking to family, then helping each other in community--not just a hand out, but a way for folks to all participate. He reminded us that most of these people have just as bad of problems at their own houses and are too busy to help at the school. But we insisted that the community needed to help and then, when the Barungay capt showed up, she said we could count on their help too. If approved on Thursday for Saturday, that would give us only one day to prepare workers, food and organizational support.

The PTA meeting was quite interesting. First, it began with a prayer. Everything begins with prayer here if it has anything to do with school. (Good thing.) The principal spoke first, mind you everything is in Visayan. MA and I understand 10%-20% of what is being said. When we heard “trabaho” and Sabado and the parents all cheered we took that as a yes. (Many of their words originate in Spanish) Oh but it wasn’t over. The district superintendent spoke, we heard shovels and brooms and more agreements from the parents. By now there were about 120 parents crowded in the small hall. Next they asked me to speak. I told them that MA would have to speak with me and it would be English nalong (only). Everyone said it’s ok because they can understand they just can’t speak it. Hmmmm. MA gave her deal about helping and trying to foster the idea of self-reliance and how our friends and family, from young to old people, gave to this worthy cause, because God loves all his children, and some of those children, even far away, want to share that love with the children here, then she sat down. I spoke a bit more about the help we were getting from our family and friends in the US and they cheered for all of you! I threw a few visayan phrases and words in and got a few more cheers. The people really appreciate the help you are giving! Before the PTA meeting closed, the proposed cleanup for Saturday was overwhelmingly approved.We said we would supply the food for lunch for the workers. The rest of the organization was left to the PTA Pres, a branch member here.

We expected 10-15 from the church members to participate, maybe 50 from the barangay of Bio-os, and about 20 missionaries. So we thought maybe 75 people would be there for the Lapok cleanup. On Friday we bought enough food for 150 just in case. Let’s talk about the shopping briefly. There are things you can buy here that are just not available in the states, i.e., dried fish, pork belly and pig head. One of the great things here is that every part of the animal gets used. Nothing is wasted. We purchased rice, chicken, pork, potatoes, onions, etc., and then the work began. A couple of church members were asked to head up the cooking, and a group of Bio-os teachers came to the church to pitch in by peeling and chopping vegetables that night before the event. When it all got bought we figured about 51P per person to eat lunch. Friday morning we were also faced with trying to get the funds here. ATM’s only allow a 10K pisos withdraw per day which is equivalent to about $233.00. And a 200 piso service charge. That wasn’t the way to go. We had heard that a wire remittance was a possibility but after some research, we would need to set up an account here and we would need proof of residence and 2 forms of ID, both of which I did not have. We rent from and pay the church for our rent and our passport is in Manila. Hmmmmm. Taylor and Tanner worked with Wells Fargo to find a better way and when they told us that Wells Fargo had a financial relationship with a nationally syndicated pawn shop we were skeptical to say the least. But it turned out that the pawn shops sell insurance, make loans, transfer money and has a credible relationship with Wells Fargo. So here I am standing in front of the pawn shop in Amlan, waiting for the cash to come in. By the way, we use the filtered water company next to the pawn shop, and had several containers delivered from there for the school. We had our first transmission of funds. It only took one hour to get the first block of funds, $1,000 maximum each transfer at only $7 each transfer. That was a deal! Taylor is now our pawn shop dude and can transfer us money on short notice.

This leads into the next part of the story which is Saturday, the cleanup day. This was truly a day of miracles. First. It rained all night and into the morning. Were we even going to have this project? We prayed for good weather. We drove to the project with our windshield wipers going. At 8 am the rain stopped-- the scheduled time for the project to start. Next, the mission president changed zone interviews to a different day so the missionaries from both zones could attend and help and he committed that he and his wife would be there in work clothes. He really did get dirty. All the missionaries were not afraid to get muddy.

Twenty-six missionaries! From the whole province. Next we had twice the church members come to the project as we expected. Next, we expected about 50-100 people for the Barangay of Bio-os to come, and as I was making a head count around the school the number was at 250 plus. They came with their shovels, brooms, rakes, bags, and muscles and heart. Our next thought was how were were going to feed all of these people? One of the missionaries came to me and told me that our members that were helping us cook were embarrassed because we didn’t have enough food for all the people. I told them “loaves and fishes”. We met with just the cooks and prayed to Heavenly Father to stretch the food so everyone had enough to eat.

Well we had enough food for everyone and there was so much extra that people took food home. We also figured that the cost per person was under 30P per person that is equivalent to about$.72/person.

PTA president accessing a day before the cleanup. Just outside the 1st grade class.













Elder Cropper doing some international banking through the pawn shop--more money than most folks here see in a life time.











Teachers from the school show up in a pedi-cab to help at the church with the cooking












Same group













Church kitchen. That's the head cook in the fore ground. We nicknamed him "Pork Chop". He can literally chop a cooked pig with his meat cleaver down to the snout!










The huge pot of chicken, red peppers and potatoes: it was all cooked out doors.












Head chef, Pork Chop. This man loves food, both the cooking and the eating
















That's our truck: people are streaming in to help.
We felt adamant that the funds you all donated actually go for supplies and tangibles for the kids.
As much as possible, we wanted the work to be volunteer.









The stage when we began. First covered with about 3" of mud. This was where the final cooking of rice and the serving would take place, so we started cleaning here.











Some children found a microscope and began cleaning it. First they had to haul water from the river, a few hundred yards away in bottles and buckets--the school's water is still not working, and the water we brought was for drinking only.
the kids are using toothbrushes salvaged from the first grade classroom mud.









One huge job was to cart away all the sodden book and records. They were so heavy and hugely putrid.












Trying to build up berms to keep water off pathways (some Fillipinos pronounce path, "fat"--that took a while to figure out).
Other folks are digging trenches to channel water away















PTO President in the yellow "Mormon Helping Hands" vest.
Best quote of the day, when asked if he shouldn't have boots on, "I was born in mud, I was raised in mud, I live in mud, I can work barefoot in mud."

























Rice and hog feed bags make very good wheel barrows












These kids contrived a wheel barrow out of I don't even know what.--getting the job done















The assistant to the mission president, down and dirty













The human conveyer belt deposited the trash out to these bikes or motorcycles with side cars who then hauled them I don't know where.












There was 1 power sprayer. They filled it from the river water.













Ya, that's a tempting mud pie to slosh in














Outside the class room when we began.














Making progress














Mostly missionaries working on this "fat" way














Pour water, sweep, haul more water, pour again, sweep some more













You can see the canal dug along the edge.














Washing toys from the classroom














A hungry crew. standing in line for lunch. The Barangy had already provided a snack mid morning--juice, and a roll--but there were a lot of hungry folks, and this was probably the scariest moment of the day. Will it stretch from the 150 we planned for to the 250 who were there? Elder Cropper took the cooks aside and prayed for yet another miracle. There was enough and to spare!!






More and more for lunch.
They kept coming out of the jungle. Who knows how many actually helped, but most did.







President and sister Schmutz and their assistants














Lots of muddy missionaries. Notice the footwear on most of them. They were awesome, but the health missionary for the mission, who warned of disease in the flood mud, would not be happy to see them in chinillas or barefoot.











The cooks, some teachers, the Barangay captain and some of the church members. Ya, that's our crazy branch President in the Saturday night fever pose.










So, it all come together. The work got done, at least enough to start school Monday was the goal.
It is Monday already here, and we don't know if that happened. The big two question marks were the water getting back on, which was a concern, but not a deal breaker--bottled water works for most things--and the repair of the bathrooms. They had a plumber come and the work was less extensive than they'd feared, so it's just a matter of how long to do it.
We are heading right now to deliver more funds.
With your generosity we already paid for paper, pencils, chalk and erasers, plus a gas stove, tank and regulator for cooking for the free lunch program.
The money we give them today will be for teacher devices, like maps, charts and such, desks and chalkboards that were damaged beyond repair, and the materials that were destroyed in the rooms.
That is all we have promised so far, but there are more funds, so today we will talk to them about engineering a new wall to keep flood waters out, and building shelves above the flood mark for books and records. With your gracious, generous gifts, the school is certainly on the mend.